translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville,
061014: OK Offenes Kulturhaus Oberösterreich Bill Fontana – Acoustic Visions
OK Offenes Kulturhaus Oberösterreich
Bill Fontana – Acoustic Visions
04.09.2014 – 19.10.2014
Networked Sound Landscapes
By Roland Schöny
A classic of sound sculpture on new paths. The American audio artist, Bill Fontana (*1947, Cleveland) surprised us in 2009 when he began to show digital films. Characteristic of his Œuvres, he continued to work, however, with tone material with real connections and inherently understands sound as a sculptural medium. However, he now combines the sound level with equivalent cinematic pictures.
Led on by the question as to how special locations sound, Fontana traces these with the camera. Exciting insights open up which are almost inaccessible to the naked eye. The larger the proximity, the greater the tendency to abstraction. For example, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco stands at the centre of "Acoustical Visions" (2012). At a visual level, it is rhythmic shadow plays in a maintenance shaft that emerge when cars are driving right over it on top. The bridge's foghorns prime the acoustical atmosphere whilst a metallic sound, reminiscent of a percussion instrument, emerges through the vibrations of the construction.
The structure of the exhibition in the upper area of the Offenen Kulturhauses leads up to the roof of the building to the "voestalpine open space". At an airy altitude, at 20.00 hours, Fontana's work "Desert Soundings" (2014) is presented on a big screen. For this film, buried vibration sensors trace the movement of individual grains of sand to make the sound of the desert available in the macro field whilst the dynamics of the sand dunes are visible in the picture.
Central is the "Linear Visions" (2014) installation. By means of a live transmission in the exhibition area, Fontana transforms live pictures of the hot rolling machine on the Voestalpine works grounds in an impressive acoustic-visual scenario. In principle, this networking of locations resembles the certainly most significant live installation that Fontana has realized in Austria: "Landscape Soundings" 1990. At that time he transferred the natural sounds of the Hainburger Au as a mix onto the forecourt of the Museum of Fine Arts / Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, as well as into the foyers of the individual ORF regional studios in the provinces.
OK Offenes Kulturhaus Oberösterreich
4020 Linz, OK Platz 1
Tel: + 43 732 78 41 78
Fax: + 43 732 77 56 84
E-mail: office@ok-centrum.at
http://www.ok-centrum.at
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061014
OK Linz
4020 Linz, OK Platz 1
Tel: + 43 732 7720-, 52502
Email: info@ooelkg.at
http://www.ooekultur.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di, So, Fei 10-18 h
OK Linz
4020 Linz, OK Platz 1
Tel: + 43 732 7720-, 52502
Email: info@ooelkg.at
http://www.ooekultur.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di, So, Fei 10-18 h